Just Updated 5/27/2000 Update on revised Sonnet Clocker: The author just sent me a copy of a Crescendo extension clocked to 500Mhz. If anyone with a 400Mhz card could try this and see if it either works or crashes the computer then at least we know the changes are affecting somthing. It should not hurt your computer and just replace it with your original extension to get thinks working correct again. But The 6400 Zone cannot be held responsible for anything that happens. Another thing pointed out to me was the fact that Sonnet had sold 400Mhz upgrades before the 10X CPUs were out. If you have one of these then it will not be clockable over 400Mhz because it is at its max speed already. Kingston does not recommend their KNE100TX (E) 10/100 ethernet card for the 6400?: Andrew tried one of these in his 6400 and it would not connect over 10Mbps? He got a reply from Kingston saying that they don't recommed it for us? I wonder if they meant their card is buggy or the 6400? Thanks Andrew. [We are using a farallon 10/100 auto sensing hub. All cabeling is up to spec. Kingston have just sent me an e-mail saying that the card we have is the cause. You may weant to note that Kingston do not recommend the installation of their card KNE100TX (E) in the 6400, they descibe it as buggy. They tell me that a KNE 110 will be fine but I am getting a Farallon card since people seem happier with this make. regards Andrew] Update on using a Belkin switch box to use 2 video cards with one monitor: Michael wrote that he tried a Belkin 2 port OmniCube for using his one 19" monitor with the stock video port and a PCI video card in his 6400. He says it works great. Thanks Michael! I had tried this before but with 6' cables and a cheap VGA switch box and it was horrible. Much ghosting of the images. Belkins box not only switches but also amplifies the signals so it works much better. Maybe I will have to give it a try soon? [Hey Tom, Michael here. I just thought I'd write and let you know that I got ahold of a Belkin switchbox, the OmniCube 2-port. It's sitting on top of my 6400 tower now with no VGA cables. I located an online store via Ask Jeeves (I asked where I could find SHORT VGA extension cables) and came up with a place that had "Super VGA" cables which were only three feet. They were only $4.90 a piece so I ordered both, and a Mac video adaptor. They should be here Friday, assuming they ship them out today. My TV is broken and I'm unwilling to fix it (this is the fourth time the same problem has occurred with this TV in 12 or 13 years now, $50 to $70 to fix it each time and the problem comes back--I think every person who's tried his hand at fixing it has remedied the problem without ever fixing the cause) so I'm pretty anxious to just be able to watch TV again. It would also be nice to get back to playing with the AVS/TV Tuner capture features since I've had the Orion installed, so you better believe as soon as I get things running I will let you know how it looks. I was wondering (because I forgot, and I deleted your last emails) how long the cables you used were? I really hope 3 feet is short enough to keep the ghosting from happening as I like to use 1024x768 at 85Hz on my 19" monitor. See ya. Michael] [I got the cables today along with the Mac/VGA converter. It took some fiddling with the switches for the right setting, which seemed to work well on the 6500's video at 640x480 and 67Hz. However, after playing the TV for a time, Apple Video Player glitched out with a bus error restart. I switched the 6500's built-in video to 640x480 at 60Hz and everything has been smooth since. Both the ATI Orion's video and the 6500's video are extremely sharp so it looks like the 3" cables are the way to go. I have a 19" KDS VS-195 monitor and routinely run it in 1024x768 and 85Hz, this suits all my purposes including gaming. Its resolution is plenty crisp, as is the 6500's at its lower resolution.(It just takes a little getting used to working with.) In order to view Apple Video Player at fullscreen, I've found it's very necessary for me to switch the menubar from the 1024 screen over to the 640. I'm only just learning Applescript, but I am planning on writing a script to automate this switch, and vice versa, so I can go back and forth without dealing with the control panel. This was a great idea. However, I don't recommend everybody spend the $100 that I did on a Belkin switchbox, the only reason I did this is because my 19" TV is broken (for the fourth time) and I refuse to fix it. I didn't realise just how much I really missed the Apple Video Player and its hardware though, because a lot of MPEGs I have on my hard disk, CDs and elsewhere really seem to play much faster with more frames with this than in Quicktime 4!(Even in fullscreen mode!) I'm kicking myself for not doing this sooner, and I'm also kicking myself for not looking around more than I had, because the same place I found these 3" Super VGA cables at happened to have a simple VGA switchbox (I don't remember the brand name) for only $50. It's great to be able to watch TV again. :) Michael] PCI Wattage limit on the 6400: Thomas writes that he had some serious problems using both a OrangeMicro Firewire/USB card and their OrangePCI 530 Windows card in his 6400. It turned out that the Wattage requirment of the 2 was higher then the specs for the 6400. I just looked them up and Apple says not to exceed 15W per PCI slot. What this means is not only the 2 cards together over the limit but so is just the one OrangePC card! Thanks Thomas. [I would like to inform you and your readers that the Orange Micro USB/Firewire card does NOT work inconjunction with and OrangePCi (PC compatibility card). When I called up Orange Micro I was told that they are aware of the problem, but don't anticipate any fix. First I was told that it's not a power consumption issue....then after the tech consulted with a higher being...he came back on and confirmed that it is a power consumption issue. Apparently the OrangePCi 530 card has a 25 Watts consumption and the USB/Firewire 15 Watts. Both of these card in a PowerPC 6500 draws too much power...resulting in the system not being able to power-on. This really is unfortunate because I don't have anymore PCI slots. If you have any advice I would much appreciate it. I also would like to ask you a question about DVD-ROM.....I've been reading your postings....but I'm still puzzled as to whether or not DVD player will work with the PowerPC 6500/6400? Is it possible to view movies with software decoder instead of a PCI decoder card? Thank you very much for your help. Thomas] I could not find info on the Voodoo3 requirements but the Voodoo2 requires 15W at 5V so it is at the max the 6400 can handle which is probably why the power supply fan spins up when the card is in use. It is driving the power supply much harder then normal. Specially if you have 2 video cards like I do (ATI VR and Voodoo2) Geoport modem fix for use with G3 upgrades: Steve started having problems with his Geo modem just after upgrading to a Sonnet G3 as many others have and he found a fix for him. He says that you can use G3Strip 1.9.1 to not only slow the L2 cache down but also reduce the size of the cache and it allows the Geo to function fine. Also Power Logix's cache profiler can be used to disable the cache but I think that would slow the computer down more then just reducing the speed and size? I think I reported similar uses of these products before but I never new that reducing the size address of the cache would make a difference? Thanks Steve. [Hi Tom: I recently upgraded my Performa 6360 with a Sonnet G3 300 mhz upgrade card with 1 meg backside cache. I was thoroughly amazed by the instant performance boost in my old Performa. The best news was that all my existing software and hardware seemed to be working with the upgrade too. But I got the bad news when I tried to connect to the internet with my old GeoPort Modem. The GeoPort wouldn't work. Well after doing some digging, it turns out that according to Apple Tech Information and Sonnets own compatibility matrix that the GeoPort Modem is not supported on G3 based machines. Well I wasn't ready to scrap my old GeoPort just yet. So I scoured the internet message boards and Performa discussion groups, such as yours, only to find out that many users had already discovered the same sad news. The GeoPort wouldn't work with the G3 processor. Or would it? I usually don't give up easy. My intuition told me that it had something to do with either the clocking speeds of the G3, the cache settings, or the GeoPort hardware/software and extensions. So I played around for couple of days with different utilities and software modifications. The result is an easy fix that I wanted to share with your readers. First make sure you have the latest version of the GeoPort 3.1 Modem drivers and software installed. These are availble from Apple and are also included on the OS 8.0 and 8.1 CD. Next install a copy of the shareware utility G3Strip 1.9.1. This utility is availble from http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA014067/en.html . The utility consist of a system extension and a control strip module. Place the two files in the appropriate folders and restart your system. The control strip module allows you to control the G3 processor's back-side cache settings. On system restart, you will notice that the G3Strip control strip module is present. Open the G3Strip and change the three cache settings to: Cache-size 256, Cache-ratio 1:3, and Cache-mode Write-through by toggling the settings. Also turn off Default at Startup to save these new settings. That's it, your GeoPort Modem will work again. Maybe even better than before. It seems that file transfer rates improve after making the change. Could be the G3 is boosting the performance of the GeoPort Modem too. To make turning these setting on/off easier, I created an extension set with Extension Manager that turns off the G3StripLib Extension. I use this extrension set when I don't plan to use my GeoPort. As another option to the G3Strip utility, I also had success using PowerLogix's free G3 Cache Profiler utility to turn off the G3's back-side cache settings to get the GeoPort to works again. Regards, Steve ps. I tried the G3 Throttle Utility and it didn't work for me.] PowerSupplies for 6400's and other Macs: Mark sent me a link to MacResQ which has many power supplies listed for Macs as well as the 6400/6500. Thanks Mark. I also added a link to their site on my Magazines page as there is really a lot of old and new stuff on their site. [I just thought that I would pass this along in case you hadn't seen it. http://www.macresq.com/product/power.html Mark] He also sent me a PDF file from MacResQ on how to take covers off the 6400 to replace the power supply. Looks like they took a lot of the pics from Apples manuals :) Thanks again Mark. I will add a link to this in my 6400 Take Apart Manual :) Just Updated 5/18/2000 Apple service manuals back!: A reader of mine has found a link to where all of Apples manuals are. Thank you very much. Below is the link. I suggest not reporting this to major web sites or Apple will find out and close it down again :( http://e-mac.com/Apple_Archive/1_Apple_Updates/Owners_Manuals/Computer_Manuals/ Update on Sonnet Clocker update: Michael sends word that he tried the new clocker and it did not change his G3 speed over 400Mhz? I have already relayed this info to the author and we'll see if a fix can be found? [Hey Tom. I tried out the Sonnet clocker (thanks for asking them to put this together by the way) but unfortunately, it doesn't work. When I select the 6500's bus speed (50MHz), the over-400MHz speeds become available. When selecting them however, nothing will actually increase the CPU speed upon restart. I have a small theory about this. Since the 400MHz G3 runs at 400MHz in both 6400 and 6500 systems, it has both the 8x and 10x bus multiplier. I am thinking there must be some kind of switch mechanism which tells it which multiplier to go with. It would seem that since it isn't getting the faster CPU speeds, this new Sonnet clocker is somehow not addressing the switch, that it's not just enough to tell the CPU to go faster, but that it has to somehow work with that 10x bus multiplier when using a 50MHz system bus. The modified Crescendo extension doesn't cause any glitches, it just isn't running over 400MHz. I have no idea if it's even possible to make it do this, but it was worth a shot. Maybe they can figure it out. ~Michael] Where to purchase Apples TV/Video system for your 6400: I received 2 letters from readers who have found places to buy Apples TV/Video system for your 6400. I tried to email Shreve to see if theirs was compatible with the 6400 but never got a response? Thanks guys. [I happened to notice that Shreve Systems ( www.shrevesystems.com ) had the TV Video System advertised on their main page, at the very bottom. I THINK this is the product you've been discussing recently on your site. Mike Ackerman] [I recently installed the TV/Vidio system "M2896LL/C" in my 6400/180 and have had no problems except that it wouldn't run with my IX3D video card. They are available from Last Avenue Computers in Kansas, contact < Dave@storebytel.com > like $46 +shipping with Avid vidio shop 3.0 Mike] Fixing memory leak in OS 9 and Apple TV/Video info: Jim sends word that turning on VM solved his problem with memory leakage. He also says an older version of the Apple Video Player fixed some of his sound input issues. Thanks Jim. [Hello, I have a 6400/200. The problems I have experienced after upgrading to MacOS 9 concern Apple TV & Memory being eaten up. Re-installing ver 1.4.2 of the Apple Video Player fixed the sound input selection bug. I have tried the 1.6 version, doesn't work. To stop memory being eaten up turn on virtual memory. If you need to use Cubase, or an app which doesn't allow VM, then complain to Apple. Later, Jim] Apple multimedia update on older Macs and Newers updated GuagePRO utility: Eric sends word that all ATI card owners should try Apples new Multimedia update as it will help speed up video acceleration for most all of their cards. Also the new GuagePRO has some new features to try. Thanks Eric. [Tom, Two items of interest to the 6400 crowd: 1) The new Apple MultiMedia update is a must for anyone with an ATI card in their system, it seems quite a bit quicker. You'll have to extract files with TomeViewer but that's a small price to pay for fixed graphics acceleration. It's now about comparable to 8.6 with Speed Doubler 8 (though SD8 improved some other things too). 2) The new version of Newer's GuagePRO utility reports that speculative addressing is on and that i/o is properly handled on the Sonnet G3 (I also have the XLR8 utility to up the clock speed of the cache but that probably doesn't mean much). Having speculative on improves performance by some small amount (5% or so, I've heard). It's a much more informative utility now, well worth the small download time.] As far as I know Sonnets G3 has always reported Speculative Addressing being turned on as it is supposed to improve I/O but some readers as well as me have found that disabling it stops freezes. Just Updated 5/13/2000 Connecting 5400's internal monitor to a PCI video card?: I have had a request for info on whether this was possible or not and I just received another letter asking the same thing. I don't know if it is possible or not but if you have any info on this could you please email the 2 people asking for help. Thanks. I read Apples 5400 Take Apart manual and if it is possible it looks like it may be very hard?

L2 G3 Upgrades PCI Timing Extension My 6400 TA manual Sonnet Clocking Gaming News ATI Rage128 Voodoo3 OS 9 info OT 2.6 for older OS's iTools info iMovie info Run Alternate OS's Spec Comparison Page Vimage compatibility user letters install review Sonnet Tech compatiblity user letters install review hack for stability Sonnet clocking Crescendo 1.4.2 installer Newer Tech compatibility user letters Power Logix Alternate OS's Avid Cinema Cable/DSL Modems CD/DVD Drives Digital video help Firewire and USB cards Geo Modem Gaming News iMovie info iTools MacOS 7.5.x - 9.0 info Magma PCI Chassis USB and Firewire cards Voodoo2 Voodoo3 6400 Icons ColorStyleWriter4000 OS 9 Crescendo 1.4.2 OT 2.6 and OT 2.6.1 SetVolume to 1 script Sonnet Clocker Sonnet Clocker II UK Telecom software Vimage drivers, latest From Apple- Mac OS Forums Performa 6400 Forums From Accelerate Your Mac- 3DFX Forums